TORONTO – Patrick Beverley did his job.

Never one to pull punches, the Bulls point guard wanted to make sure his fellow starters understood what their job was.

“Be pros,’’ Beverley was chirping at teammates when the locker room opened to the media after the 104-98 loss to the Raptors. “Fifteen turnovers from the starters … be pros.’’

There was a method to his madness, however.

“I told the guys after the game, I feel like DeMar [DeRozan] and Zach [LaVine] need to shoot the ball a little more for us to beat a team we need to beat, especially in the playoffs,’’ Beverley said. “The goal is not to get to the playoffs. The goal is to get to the playoffs and compete. Not just to go there and be a wash rag for another team.

“Not only that, but we had 15 turnovers with the first unit. I think I was the leading rebounder in the first unit. That’s unacceptable. The first unit has to be better, and we will. It was a good test for us.’’

But one the Bulls (28-34) failed, ending a two-game winning streak, as well as again falling a 1 ½ games behind Washington for the final play-in spot.

Where to point the finger?

Not at Beverley, who scored eight points, grabbed seven rebounds, handed out four assists, and more importantly, held Toronto’s Fred VanVleet to just three points – almost 17 points under his average.

What the Bulls should be bothered with was the 20 turnovers and being outrebounded 47-35, as well as giving up 19 offensive rebounds.

“What hurt us was our turnovers and getting outrebounded on the glass,’’ center Nikola Vucevic said. “We didn’t do a good enough job of boxing them out. We talked about it before the game, and just didn’t execute it.’’

Vucevic led the Bulls with 23 points, hitting 4-of-6 from three-point range.

Not that this latest matchup for the Bulls wasn’t at least interesting.

Coach Billy Donovan was able to get away with marching a smaller starting lineup out there the first two games with Beverley now in the mix, as Brooklyn and Washington didn’t offer up issues in that department.

Toronto did.

Jakob Poeltl goes 7-foot-1, Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes are each 6-8, and O.G. Anunoby is 6-7. That length was a concern entering the contest, and quickly showed why, as the Raptors jumped up seven.

To the Bulls’ credit, however, they stayed true to their recent blueprint, which meant digging the heels in the dirt and muddying up the game on the defensive end.

The blueprint worked, as the Toronto (31-32) lead was just one after the first quarter and gone by the second.

The real head-scratcher was how the Bulls took a two-point lead into the locker room at the half, despite 10 turnovers and being outrebounded 23-16?

Pat the defense on the back for forcing Toronto into less efficient shots. Through that first half, the home team went just 17-for-48 (35.4%) from the field and 5-for-21 (23.8%) from three-point range.

Where it got away was in the fourth quarter, when Toronto grabbed six offensive rebounds, shot 5-of-10 from three-point range, and outscored the Bulls 34-26.

“Hold the ball a little bit, get some more shots up, I don’t know, box out, get three more rebounds, we win this game by eight points,’’ Beverley said. “We play hard as hell. You play Toronto, everybody is saying the same thing. Offensive rebounding, that’s what [the Raptors] do.

“I’m not worried, I’m excited. I was very anxious to see the locker room after a loss, see what I’m dealing with.’’

Now he knows.